 | 21 Jan 10 |
There was this house my husband and I had looked at to buy, years ago. I still cannot get over this place. I have forgotten major life events, traumas and good, happy moments, but this house was burned into my memory.
It was a beautiful house on the exterior. Set against a lake backdrop, with its own private pier (small, but still, a lake, and private), it was a dream home. We were a little concerned with the price–it was at our upper end–but it was do-able if we scrimped and watched our budget very carefully. The best part was, it wasn’t on the market officially yet. My husband had been talking about us house shopping while in a store or restaurant somewhere, when a man piped up that he and his wife were about to put their house on the market, and one thing led to another and we were getting a private showing before they signed with the real estate agent. I, being somewhat concerned that the wife actually know her husband was going to sell their house, called the man ahead of our tour time to make sure it was still convenient for them. After all, they were very much still living there and even though they’d had a few days to prepare, I know how these things can go. He assured us that yes, they were ready and happy to show the house.
When we drove up, I was stunned, but then we went inside and… wow. And not a good wow. A very not good wow.
There was junk. Everywhere. 
EVERY single place you could imagine. All neatly piled, and you could tell they’d made a real effort to clean around it, but still–I couldn’t really see the house for the piles of stuff. On the dining table alone, the entire table–which easily sat eight people–was filled with unopened mail or paperwork. The pile touched the chandelier. In fact, the chandelier cocked at a funny angle, and I wasn’t entirely sure if the mail was holding the chandelier in place or vice versa.
Every flat surface had piles of stuff. Some of it paperwork and more mail, and some of it things they used daily but just never found a place to put up. One entire bedroom could not be entered (the door couldn’t open all the way) because of the amount of junk tossed in there. It literally touched the ceiling for 2/3rds of the room and I just stood there, in the half-opened door, and gaped.
I told my husband that the only way they’d ever actually move was if they were forced out, because no woman in her right mind wants to pack all of that. And if she’s responsible for the mess, there’s no way she’d ever have the skills or the fortitude to go through it and sort. 
Now, as any writer knows, there’s a story to just about everything. It’s hard to toss stuff because it gives you an idea, or it has sentimental value (which gives you ideas) or it meant something or means something to someone you love (which gives you ideas… maybe to strangle the someone you love for encumbering you with more junk, but still… ideas…) and as a writer, ideas are always needed. They’re the fodder for the one single small detail that makes a paragraph so grounded in reality, the reader nods, immersed, familiar, and is hooked… or they’re the fodder for the big bang of an idea that you can build an entire novel around it. So to throw stuff away is to risk not having that inspiration right there, when you need it most.
I’m not sure if it was just because things might help me with ideas for stories, or if somehow because I’m a writer, people gave me weird shit to keep, or by virtue of being a mom, I became the Keeper of the Junk–all of the stuff no one else knew what to do with, so they’d give it to me and figure I’d stick it somewhere–but whatever it was, about two years ago, I thought, enough. I wanted a streamlined, clean house. I wanted to open up closets and find what I was looking for. I wanted to know where everything was, and only keep the stuff we really have to have and will use. If it hasn’t been used in a couple of years, it needs to go.
And as God is my witness, I intended to keep that promise to myself and purge this house of junk.
Well, I am here to tell you, junk breeds in the dark in the corners of the closets when you aren’t looking. If you put a pair of gloves in the same cabinet as a few random baseball caps, you will open up the cabinet a few months from now and find bizarre moth eaten winter sweaters you’ve never seen before and wouldn’t have bought if you were falling down drunk with a credit card and speed dial, winter hats with one ear muff missing (not that you ever bought ear muffed hats), one of the gloves but not the other, and a half eaten box of Skittles. I don’t know how the hell they got the Skittles, but I am telling you right now, if you see a half-opened box and you leave it there? Do not blame me if you open that cabinet a few months from now and have sixteen small appliances, all without the cord or some part that they need to work, and a couple of dozen of mismatched socks and several dolls, usually missing their eyes.
We have spent the last two years purging. We’ve given away dozens of truck loads to places like the Battered Women’s Shelter and Goodwill. I let my kids have a garage sale of everything they thought was worth the effort about this time last year, and they made $510 and we still gave away another two truckloads. I spent all summer giving away stuff. Seriously. Just tossing, ruthlessly.
Except when it came to my own stuff. My old books and crap in my office. I needed that stuff, people. Needed it. I knew I had a problem when I was trying to whittle down a few books on my bookshelves because there was just no more room and no more bookshelves in the immediate future, and I stood there over a really pathetically small pile of giveaways (some old book on taxes, circa the 80s, and something about welding, which I was almost tempted to keep, because what if I write about welding? Except my husband knows how to weld and there is always the internet, but I still dithered about that one.) Anyway, I was standing there, clutching a moldy (because it had somehow gotten wet) version of some Danielle Steel novel I don’t remember reading and probably got in some box of books that someone thought I should want and I couldn’t make up my mind about it and my husband said, “Seriously? You had less anxiety over the boys leaving home!”
And that’s when it struck me… I was one of those people. I was one of those people you see on those Clean Sweep kinds of shows, who have all this junk that they swear they didn’t realize they had (how could they not see? were they blind?) and that I had sort of mocked (because see? I was purging, ha, you slackers). If left to my own devices, I’d be that lady with the house with the crap piled to the ceiling.
So wow, have I been tossing, ruthlessly. The house is now almost put back together and every single closet is clean and organized.
(Well, the laundry room has two cabinets left to go, but they are the last in the whole house.) I have bought enough bins and whatsits and crap that when I griped on Twitter the other day about Home Depot screwing up an order, they immediately wrote back and apologized and tried to fix the problem. When I didn’t go into Lowe’s for a couple of days, they called to see if I was sick. If I’d have been out a week, I might’ve scored a gift card.
First drafts can be like this, if we’re not careful. We can toss in a bunch of things for the wrong reasons… playing what if this, and what if that, maybe this is the genre, maybe that one, oh, look, cross blending genres, maybe we should build up this angle just to keep those people over there happy… and if we do this, it can be a mess. One of the best things I learned from my years as a screenwriter was to say, simply, “What needs to happen next?” Just tell the story, step by step. If you think you need it, fine. But later, when you’re editing, the question changes to, “what’s the absolute least amount I must have for the reader to get it, right here, right now?” Sometimes, holding back, keeping things clean and simple allows the reader to actually see more, because there’s no clutter in their way.
Like that house we’d gone to see. I’m sure it was a beautiful house, but we couldn’t see it for the clutter.
So how about you? What’s the thing you can’t stop collecting or hanging onto? Do you keep magazines? Newspapers? Clipping? Coffee mugs? C’mon… fess up.
All commenters are going to be eligible for a $25 Amazon or BN.com or Borders.com gift certificate — especially to celebrate Allison’s newest release next Tuesday: Original Sin.
© 2010, Toni McGee Causey. All rights reserved.
Toni McGee Causey lives in Baton Rouge, LA, and is the best-selling author of the BOBBIE FAYE trilogy. She has contributed a critically acclaimed short story to the KILLER YEAR: STORIES TO DIE FOR anthology edited by Lee Child and an essay in DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO MISS NEW ORLEANS. Additionally, she recently produced an indie film, LA 308. She and her husband, Carl, are licensed general contractors and, in order to support her writing addiction, they run their own company, specializing in civil construction.
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My son has a friend with one of those houses that is overrun with stuff. Over the last couple of years I have been trying to get rid of stuff. The hardest part has been getting rid of books. I always like to have many books around because you never know what you feel like reading but I have to be ruthless this year and really get some of them out.
by Maureen January 21st, 2010 at 6:11 amI don’t have a huge amount of junk in my life. When I got married, I discovered my hubster was a purger, except with computer parts. It took YEARS for him to get rid of an old Diablo printer. Yes, it cost over $700 in the 1970′s, but now? Worthless.
I had my eyeopener when I held my first garage sale. What I thought something was worth was far more than reality. I had factored in the sentimental value. You can’t do that.
When we had a kid and she got birthday or Christmas presents–out went the old to make room for the new.
A few nights ago I woke up to the realization that I needed to cut two chapters out of a manuscript that I thought was dead–queried to death and rejected. Done. Fini. Why would I think about this when I was 10000 words into a new story??
Two days later, I got a partial request.
Guess what I’m doing now? Yeah, I’m cutting two chapters and tying it back together again. Now, it may not sound like much, but it’s two chapters of a middle grade novel, over 3000 words–in those two chapters I chopped over 8% of the book–and that’s not counting the rest of it!
I just wished I’d waited to query until I cleaned up the junk I didn’t realize was there. And the sad part is that I thought my baby was beautiful when I sent her into the world–too bad she had a bad case of cradlecap.
by Margaret A. Golla January 21st, 2010 at 8:07 amMargaret… LOL. Man, I empathize on the printer. There are a lot of things I think I’ve been great purging about, but it cracked me up to see I wasn’t nearly as tough as I thought I was.
But you’re absolutely right. I was sort of shocked at the things that no one wanted, and just as surprised at the things that went super fast. Really made me put a harsh eye on the things I thought I ought to keep because one day, it might be worth something. (ha)
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 9:56 amBooks,books and more books. We’ve stopped going to auctions becasue we just can’t stop from bidding on stuff. My husband saves everything. Cars tools, wood, metal, and anything else he might need someday.
by Jackie January 21st, 2010 at 6:53 pm·
Your post really made me smile. I personally don’t have junk. I’m not a keeper, I don’t mind throwing stuffs I don’t use away. Consequently, I don’t have junks around… which is good, because there is already all my husband’s junks to deal with !!
by Emmanuelle January 21st, 2010 at 8:21 amThis man just can’t throw things away. In his case it’s not a pathology, but it’s pretty close to me
With years I’ve convinced him to purge the house and he, himself, is not as “fetish” as he used to be SO there is definitely hope !
oooh, you people who aren’t keepers! You need to bottle that and sell a serum. I’ll have a dozen.
I’m pretty sure I hadn’t quite gotten around to hoarding status, or pathological, but ya know, a few more years of this and it would have been. My grandmother collected everything and kept everything under the sun.
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:03 amI used to be a hoarder, but I’ve moved so many times in the past ten years that I’ve had to purge. Still, I’m not perfect. I have boxes of ‘important papers’ stuffed into closets and growing in the basement. I bet I’ve still got phone bills from when I lived in FL in 2002. (Because you never know when you’re going to need something like that, ya know?)
I hoard in my first drafts, too. I admit it. I’m getting better about writing tighter, but if it weren’t for editiing, I’d be lost.
by B.E. Sanderson January 21st, 2010 at 9:03 amB.E., you and me, both (re: drafts). I think if I’d moved often, this wouldn’t have been a problem, because I absolutely do not like junk nor packing. It was just easier to ignore when it was all behind closet doors.
As for drafts, I tend to put more in and then cut, but screenwriting cured me of doing too much. I have a structure so internalized now that I end up pretty close to where I need to be, word-wise, but that came from years of suffering at the alter of the screenwriting gods and their hard and fast rules about length.
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:07 amOne of my life rules is “Stuff expands to fill available space.†You are obviously doing a great job of culling back on that extra “stuff.†Me—not so much. Alas, understanding the issue is not the same as working it, but I like to think it is a first step. Wish me luck!
by GSM January 21st, 2010 at 10:07 amOh, man, GSM, you are so right about that expansion. When we moved to this house 12 years ago, I purged every single thing that came in here. We had many cabinets completely empty the day we moved in because there was no way I was going to put junk in my new house. 12 years later, it was a whoa… even after purging for a year, it still felt cluttered. Not quite falling-out-of-the-cabinets level, but enough to be a pain. And there are fewer people living here now! It should have been far less junk than more.
You know what did it for me? That first seriously organized closet. Once I got one done, with the nice organizers and baskets and labels, it stayed super clean, for months. Everything was so much easier to find, that it motivated me to do the next one. I just worked my way around the house, one closet at a time, until this last bigger renovation, where I was forced to take on more at once.
You can do it! Sending out good luck vibes, which, luckily, don’t take up any room.
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:12 amI can totally relate! We’ve been going through this for the past couple of years too. With renovating the OLD house, most of our stuff was in boxes and such first in a storage unit and then in our garage. We have gone through it, whittling down to what we really want to keep. Can you believe I had the original boxes, instruction manuals, etc. for every single cell phone this family has ever purchased? Not a good thing…and that’s only the beginning.
by Debra Webb January 21st, 2010 at 10:18 amLOL… Deb, I was the same. I had a forwarding device thingie for phones we owned two phones ago…something you’d put your cell phone down on and it would forward the call to your house phone. It never worked very well and we don’t even have the phones, and yet, I actually thought for a second, “Well, maybe I should keep it in case someone I know has a phone like that.”
Um, yeah. Only if they go backward in time five years, will they need it.
And I kept manuals! I can count on one hand the number of times we actually referred to a manual in the years we’ve been married, and now everything’s on the web. But there I was, with manuals on file in my filing cabinet. Geez.
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:22 amWe looked at a couple of houses like that. Can’t imagine how anyone could see enough to tell if they wanted to buy it. “Best” one had guns all over the place and stuffed/mounted animals of every recognizable species on the wall. And targets in the yard.
But since we’re trying to sell our house, we’re following our Realtor’s directions and have cleared out an amazing amount of “can’t part with that” stuff. Some of it’s waiting in a POD, though.
I think that ‘stuff’ will also cover any flat, exposed surface.
I still write too much ‘stuff’ in my first draft(s) but am getting better about clearing out the clutter.
by Terry Odell January 21st, 2010 at 10:21 amTerry, those houses with the piles of guns and ammo–while being shown–worry me. It’s like, “buy my house, or else!”
And good luck on selling. I hope the market there is picking up. It’s frustrating to be in the limbo of waiting, I know.
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:24 amHi Toni,
by Laura Griffin January 21st, 2010 at 10:46 amI’m also a packrat. My thing is newspapers. I just keep stacks of them, particularly the Sunday editions, which I like to read during the week. Drives my husband crazy. And those towers of manuscript drafts and page proofs waiting for the shredder? They just grow and grow.
LOL… yeah, I used to do that, too. It got better with the internet and I quit taking daily delivery because I could catch it the next day. But there’s nothing quite like that tower of potential, is there? All those stories, waiting to happen.
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 11:10 amI keep soooo much stuff I shouldn’t! I admit I could need an intervention from the TV show Hoarders.
by ErinT January 21st, 2010 at 10:47 amBooks, yes I probably have over a thousand books in my house. I have a select few I do re-read, but I just cannot get rid of them for some reason.
I also have a huge storage bin full of stuff my kids have made at school. I save it all, it has sentimental value to me. And I hope to one day make scrap books for each of my girls with some of the items.
And candles! I have so many candles it’s crazy, if I lit them all at the same time I’d probably burn my house down. And all those books would make great kindling, LOL.
Erin, LOL. My mom kept a bunch of stuff of mine and a couple of years ago, gave me a scrapbook of everything I’d ever published, and a bunch of PR things, reviews, etc. I swear, I treasure that one–made me cry. So you’re on the right track.
Maybe for the kids’ drawings, find stuff that’s representative of the best they did at each age. Then the rest was just practice and easier to let go of?
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:21 pmI’m a pack rat at heart, but moving has forced me to improve, at least a little. My problem is that if an object has even the slightest emotional attachment, getting rid of it feels like pulling off fingernails. Sometimes I think maybe if i had to move into a studio apartment it would be worth it just for the exercise of clearing the clutter!
I know what you mean about the drafts too. I confess to being one of those who throws in random things thinking “oh, maybe that’ll come in handy” and later has to cut huge swaths…
by sophie littlefield January 21st, 2010 at 11:15 amSophie, I’ve often thought of that–kinda wondering how I’d be at a studio apartment. I really actually hate clutter, and hate the sight of it. I think the term “organized hoarder” would have applied to me before now, because I did keep it all very neat and out of sight–I just had a lot of places to store things and of course, had filled all of those places.
The sentimental thing is done for me. I don’t know if it’s age or if it’s having watched my mom have to clean out my grandmother’s house this past summer when she passed away (and though I helped, she did the brunt of the work). She worried so much over so many little things, whether someone wanted them, whether they were of sentimental value to someone else, that it stressed her out. Right then, I realized, I don’t want my kids to go through this. I really don’t. I’ve pared waaaay down, and what’s of value, they know about, and everything else can be give away. That’s the rule and it was really freeing.
And I hope you had a wonderful time CELEBRATING!!
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:19 pmMy mother would say I keep everything and anything. But I would say that I keep a lot of magazines and old paperwork that I might need someday. lol
by Amanda January 21st, 2010 at 11:16 amAmanda, the magazines I wanted to keep were the decorating ones, because everything was sooo pretty! Never mind that the point most of them were making was to clear out the junk first…. oops.
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 11:32 amI agree. I’ve only been in my current house for a year and a half, after purging when we moved and again when my daughter moved in and back out. Need to do it again. So yup, junk breeds and moves in the dark. Should be a story in that, huh?
by Carol Shenold January 21st, 2010 at 11:21 amThere’s got to be, Carol. Maybe that’s why we always thought there were monsters under the beds or in the closets. It wasn’t just that those were dark places, it’s that the junk was in there, breeding, plotting. oy.
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 11:33 amI have a huge collection of dolphins and I’ve finally have told friends and family not to give me anymore because its getting to out of hand!
by Teresa W. January 21st, 2010 at 11:57 amTeresa — yep, I (sadly) know that feeling, too. I once collected antique cameras, and now have so many more than I can put on shelves. I had to tell people to stop.
Wow, I’m looking at these comments at the amount of junk I obviously had and didn’t even realize. Yikes! Save me!
(Actually, I gave most of that stuff away, but the lure is so sweet, so dark, so easy… me preeccioouuussssss.)
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 12:03 pmOMG! Have you been snooping around my office, garage, or closets? Let’s don’t even mention the attic, which is where a bunch of stuff in the garage is supposed to go. I won’t discuss the copse of painted-white-and-glittered tree branches foresting the garage. The Only bought them a year ago to use as decorations at her wedding a year from now. No comment. I plead the fifth.
I get new office space this spring. I swear I’m going to get organized and toss stuff. Srsly. Stop laughing. You’ll choke and I am so not doing the Heimlich!
by Silver James January 21st, 2010 at 12:02 pmSilver, I’d laugh, except I’m in the same boat! I so cannot throw stones. (Hell, I probably couldn’t find them to throw them.)
A copse of… okay, you have me beat on that one. Unless you count the time machine I have in my attic. (http://postcardsfromla.com/timemachine)
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 12:04 pmMy DH would kill (figuratively if not literally
) for that time machine. He thinks that is the coolest thing ever and would probably quit gritching about the forest of dead tree limbs in his garage if he had that to play with. Hmmmm….
No. No-no bad dog. Don’t go there. Too. Much. Junk!
by Silver James January 21st, 2010 at 4:05 pmI didn’t think I was a ‘saver’ till I realized all the stacks I had lying around I was going to “weed through” any day now.
Like you, I keep things for their idea value — sometimes whole books and magazines from which I want to cull one small article or mote of inspiration (and we won’t even talk about all the bookmarks I have stored in my Goggle Mail!).
Time and other pressing matters pushes each stack to a corner, then a new script starts and I begin collecting research for *that* one…
My research-to-script quotient is about 6:1 at the moment and losing rapidly!
by Mike Snyder January 21st, 2010 at 12:12 pmYep, that is how I operated. I’ve finally created an idea box (courtesy of a suggestion from JT Ellison). If something grabs my attention (whether an article or whatever), I put it in the box. I don’t try to organize it until the box is full, and then I look through it to see if anything is still worth keeping. It’s not a big box, either. Things that are truly fascinating get scanned in and pasted into Scrivener or, if they’re too big to scan, they get a file in the filing cabinet. But mostly, I’ll keep an “ideas” file in Scrivener and summarize anything that looks interesting, or the salient point that grabbed my attention and toss the rest.
After all, if it’s a really good idea, it’ll stick. If not, it wasn’t worth keeping the mess to begin with.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:16 pmMy kitchen drawers seem to become the final resting for odd things. The drawers that I just cleaned and de-cluttered a month ago are barely closing. Somehow there have appeared keys (to God only knows what), lighters (no one in my house smokes), screwdrivers, hammers (yes, plural), and odd nails, screws, tacks and braces.
by Angie T January 21st, 2010 at 12:48 pmIf we were actually doing some repairs or remodeling I could understand this. Maybe the man-fairy visits in the night and is slowing trying to drive out my spatulas, whisks, measuring spoons and aprons. I just can’t explain it…..
Angie, LOL — the man fairy is more real than any Easter Bunny or tooth fairy mix. That is the only way I can explain the random and sudden appearance of superglue and nuts and bolts in my kitchen drawers. Or the toothpicks.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:12 pmMy son has a friend with one of those houses that is full of stuff. I have been trying for the past couple of years to get clutter out of the house and I have been doing pretty good except with books. I don’t like getting rid of them but I am going to have to start doing better at it.
by Maureen January 21st, 2010 at 12:57 pmMaureen, the only thing that made me feel better about giving away books was giving them to a battered woman’s shelter or a hospice / hospital. I’ve left them in waiting rooms (a couple at a time) because sometimes, people are stuck with nothing else to read.
Same thing with magazines, if they’re not too old.
by Toni McGee Causey January 21st, 2010 at 1:08 pmToni, this is a terrific idea. May I also suggest any local veteran’s hospital or home? I take all my non-keeper romance novels to the local VA hospital and the Volunteer librarian cries every time. They have books for the men, usually, but not for female family members or women veterans.
by Silver James January 21st, 2010 at 4:07 pmOh, Silver, great idea! So glad you posted it.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 4:52 pmToni, I was fine until you said coffee mugs. We don’t even have a coffee maker anymore, but dozens of coffee cups. I hate to get rid of them because we get them on vacations. So each mug is a memory of a place we’ve been as a family.
My husband is an organized hoarder. He keeps tons of stuff but it is all stored away in boxes in the rafters over the garage. Each member of our family has memory boxes for every year or two, however long it took to fill the box with stuff we thought we couldn’t live without.
by Jill James January 21st, 2010 at 1:15 pmAn organized hoarder! I love that label–says it all.
I am afraid of looking in the attic. I have reports that it isn’t as bad as I fear because we did cull a lot of it that was no longer needed (like tax return stuff), but those memento issues get me.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 4:54 pmWow,you should see if those people ever moved, prob not!! Sounds like that TV show Hoarders, it’s creepy but interesting in a weird way. I am the keeper at my house and have a lot of trouble parting with anything. I am now pitching newspapers and try not to buy magazines. My books are taking over our bedroom at the moment. They can’t be ALL keepers, can they?? The hardest things to get rid of are from dear departed relatives. How could anyone throw out Great Aunt Nellie’s rocker!! I need help, an uninterested party and me out of town, and I could have an uncluttered house. Is that gonna happen , NO!!! Oh well, I’ll use the gift cert at Amazon for storage boxes. Thanks, Sue
by QLady48 January 21st, 2010 at 1:40 pmSue, LOL… I have those same sort of things. I’m looking right now at a giant spinning wheel from a great-great aunt and I don’t have the heart to part with it, but really, what can you do with a giant spinning wheel. (Right now, it sits at the end of my desk, acting as a room divider, of sorts. Since it’s just rungs, it’s “see-through” and doesn’t take up a lot of visual space, but still keeps the end of my desk…
oh. hell. See? I can rationalize ANYthing.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 4:57 pmI have to confess, Toni, that I was raised by a master hoarder, in a mobile home yet. If you think it’s difficult to live that way, try it in a trailer. I am bipolar II also, which makes it even easier to get overwhelmed and be paralyzed from doing anything about it. I have the biggest problem getting rid of anything that belonged to my momma, God rest her packrat soul. When she passed, we were in the process of moving into her trailer with her, so we had two trailers worth of stuff to cram into one. We were making headway, trying to get a habitat home, when my husband lost his job. We finally brought home all the stuff we had in a storage unit for that home, to our cats’ delight. You see, apparently mice got into some of the boxes. I found out the hard way while looking through them for a book, when momma, yes momma, mouse leaped out at me. I hated leaving her babies to die, but that whole box went to the dumpster, I decided I could live without whatever was in that box. Still have a handful of boxes to get through and a couple of closets. I am trying, but I’d almost be grateful to end up on Hoarders or Clean Sweep. I mean, Juli & I are bipolar and Ralph, well, he’s a man (can’t fix that handicap!) so it’s an uphill battle. (Can you believe I want to win the card so I can add more books to my household?) You are awesome!
by Marcia Carter January 21st, 2010 at 1:54 pmMarcia, I really do empathize. It’s hard to get rid of stuff, but honestly, you’re not using it anyway. I once posted online on Lani’s site that my husband’s grandmother said to me that God can’t put anything good in your hands if they’re busy holding onto junk, and it’s true, whether you’re religious or not–the principle’s the same.
Don’t look at the enormity. If I had looked at what it was going to take to do what we just finished, I would have been overwhelmed and wouldn’t have tried. But I so love the result. So pick one box a day. Just one. One closet. One drawer. Whichever, just one and clean that one. Then, if you’re feeling good, you can do more, but if it’s overwhelming you, you can stop.
Anyone can do one of something.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:11 pmI am building quite a collection of greeting cards and books. It seems like such a crime to part with any of them. So, I have them stored in plastic containers of all sizes.
by Leni January 21st, 2010 at 2:36 pmLeni, I went through and kept the prettiest ones from past years and used just the covers of them to decorate presents. Someone really needs to come up with a better use of them, though, because they’re too pretty to throw away and I feel guilty just tossing them into the recycle bin. (Which I do, but still!)
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 4:59 pmI am pack rat. For me, it is shoes, clothes, and books.
by CrystalGB January 21st, 2010 at 3:06 pmCrystal, LOL. My husband’s the true packrat, with the random stuff he has to have. But he just stood in the hallway looking into the various seriously bare, clean, organized rooms and said, “Wow. The house looks amazing.” And it does. I think he’ll want to keep it that way, because in his heart, he wants things organized.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:07 pmI keep a lot of magazines dating back to the mid 90′s. I have a bunch of old Cosmos and Vogues. I also have a hard time throwing away clothes. Doesn’t matter if they’re out of style or don’t fit me anymore I just can’t seem to throw them away.
by Jane January 21st, 2010 at 3:18 pmJane, maybe you can call them a “collection” and sell them as “vintage” on eBay.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 5:01 pmDoes pounds and gray hair count?
by Jen Lyon January 21st, 2010 at 3:44 pmJen, LOL. Only if it’s intentional.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 5:02 pmHaha! This post was so for me. I collect a few things. Shoes (duh, I’m a girl), purses, books, and websites. It sounds funny, I know, but I love checking different sites for publishing news, author information, and book reviews. What can I say? I’m a collector!
by Lisa B. January 21st, 2010 at 7:51 pmBooks are my downfall. When we sold the family home two years ago, we went from ten rooms down to four. Between our local public library and various charities, the number of boxes of books(moving size) divided among them numbered 35. It was really hard to part with a lot of the books, but there was just no place to put them. I try to control what I buy and keep, but it’s really hard.
by Mary January 21st, 2010 at 8:28 pmI collect piles. piles of papers, piles of books, piles of clean laundry, piles of piles.
I love my paper shredder tho. helps with the piles o’ paper.
by Karin Tabke January 21st, 2010 at 8:58 pmKarin, you are a girl after my own heart. We’d be dangerous together, if they could ever find us underneth the piles of stuff.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:04 pmLOL I hear you! I have the same problem, with books I can’t part with them. When I run out of room I box them up and take the to the attic, problem there our attic is full of all kinds of junk. My sons toys are up there, he’s twenty and still want part with these toys. I don’t have the heart to clean it all out. In the winter its to cold up there and in the summer way to hot! I feel like getting a dumpster and just pitching it all but I just can’t give up my books. Oh my what should I do!
by Quilt Lady January 21st, 2010 at 9:13 pmLOL. Both my sons wanted to hang onto stuff, as long as it was here. I finally said, “Look, I will store stuff for you until you’re 25, but at that point, you either take it or it goes.” (That coincided with my starting this purging thing two years ago.) It was amazing what they no longer cared about keeping if they had to keep it at their own place. LOL.
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 10:05 pmI am really bad with magazines and books. But even though those are my worst spots, there are these black hole drawers that the stuff seriously has to multiply in. I know the last time I moved I threw away at least 3 times what that drawer should have held.
by Donna S January 21st, 2010 at 11:12 pmLOL, Donna. They really do breed. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Magazines are a special downfall–especially when they’re laid out beautifully or have great in-depth science articles. As much as I now read online, it’s just not quite the same as leafing through a magazine, is it?
by toni mcgee causey January 21st, 2010 at 11:36 pmBooks. I can let go of some books, but my keeper no way. My books are actually in my closet. All around one room is hard back books. Some I haven’t even read and they’ve been there for a bit. I’m going to eventually give all the hard backs (except my keepers) to goodwill. I have also gave books on bookcrossing.com and bookmooch.com.
by Amy S. January 21st, 2010 at 11:46 pmHa Ha! Funny thing to ask! I collect books! All kinds of books! It’s been a very long love affair, one my hubby will never understand. I also collect lighthouses and sea shells. They remind me of the ocean. When you live in Missouri, so far away for the water, you collect things to help you visualize the beautiful waves, the calming sounds and those things that are around the water’s edge.
by Lisa G January 21st, 2010 at 11:48 pmI just got home an hour ago! It’s been a very busy day.
Thank you Toni for mentioning ORIGINAL SIN, I’m getting really excited :/
I have paper galore. Magazines, articles I’ve printed off the computer, old manuscripts, ARCs, kids art work, old bills, flyers–you name it. It’s a mess.
by Allison Brennan January 22nd, 2010 at 2:36 amYeah, umm…I have a guest bedroom that is filled with stuff. Since our daughters are musicians, I have 6 sizes of violins–none of which I can part with, because who knows? Their kids might take up music.
The worst is the plastic boxes of school projects, report cards, all that stuff I planned to put into personalized scrapbooks for each of them. Right. The oldest is 20 and this project has been on the back burner half her life.
But I’ll admit I’m better than I used to be! The most memorable purge — I shredded all 200+ rejection letters I’d collected over the years before I got published. It was an inspiration to see that bulging folder and know that I was submitting, but it felt good to let that all go and move on.
by Lori Armstrong January 22nd, 2010 at 8:36 amI still have all my rejection letters. Keeps me humble.
by Allison Brennan January 22nd, 2010 at 6:36 pmbobbleheads were cool and stuff animanls
i like mugs and magnets too
great giveaway thanks
by kh January 22nd, 2010 at 12:49 pmSo much stuff, so little time to clean it all up! I find it incredibly hard to sort through a box without thinking (about this odd bit or that), “Oh, I know what this goes to; I’ll just put this aside until I find that.” That way lies madness.
by lois January 22nd, 2010 at 4:08 pmI fear the day I wake up and realize I’m one of “those” people. Fear it.
by Cele January 22nd, 2010 at 6:43 pmOh geez… let me think. Once upon a time I had a large collection of magazines. Why I thought I needed all those old Martha Stewart mags, who knows. Maybe I was dreaming of the massive dinner party I’d host one day…but I digress. I’ve gotten rid of more and more coffee mugs over the years. I have the set that goes with my everyday dishes and a few favorites (like the huge ones that hold 3 cups of coffee). I don’t collect shoes. Or jewelry (though I definitely appreciate both.) No, what I collect is books… I’d really have to take pictures to do the collection justice. Maybe that’ll be a good blog post for next week, assuming I can get a picture of them all. But I won’t show the ones in the 30 or so boxes in the attic, sorry. Just can’t open the door that wide.
Just kidding.
by Alice Anderson January 22nd, 2010 at 8:31 pm